The slogan over at the Kent School District\u2019s central kitchen is \u201cWe serve education every day\u201d and for the past 21 years Dan Johnson, the director of food and nutritional services, has lived it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe charge, or the passion, if you will, is provide nutrition for kids that better prepares them for the classroom,\u201d Johnson said Friday. \u201cKids can\u2019t learn when they\u2019re hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s business as usual for Johnson, as his staff of 170 prepares 21,000 meals a day for students across all 40 of Kent\u2019s schools. But after more than two decades heading up the department and more than 53.82 million meals served (his estimate), Johnson is calling it a career.<\/p>\n
As of Saturday morning, Johnson and his wife Beverly were headed to Southern California, to begin a retirement of travel in their motor home. But it\u2019s a big difference from the career that had him focused on ensuring the students of the Kent School District had full bellies and were ready to learn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t just feed bodies, we feed souls,\u201d Johnson said Friday. \u201cWe truly are what we eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s love of food – and his career in it – stretches back to when he was a young man growing up in Kennewick, Wash. At age 12, Johnson said he and three of his friends started a 4H culinary club to explore their interest in cooking.<\/p>\n
Johnson said he remembers mostly brown-bagging it to school in those days, but said a friend\u2019s mother was head of the district\u2019s food-services department and though after school he became a chef, conversations with her made him realize that working in the schools to keep students fed might be something he wanted to do with his life.<\/p>\n
When she retired, he applied for the job, and the one-time Kennewick Chef of the Year headed into a new phase in his career that would last nearly 30 years. After six years on the other side of the mountains, Johnson moved to Kent.<\/p>\n
In the more than two decades he has headed up Food Services, Johnson said things have changed quite a bit in the industry, with more of a focus today on making sure schools get the freshest ingredients. Good nutrition makes students lifelong learners, he said, not just in feeding their brains, but their bodies as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those things are important because we know nutrition has an impact as they\u2019re growing up,\u201d he said, adding that the industry has made \u201cmajor strides\u201d in ensuring students have healthier choices at school and hopefully through their lives. \u201cJust like we do with our educational philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said he drew on his experience as a chef and restaurant owner to try and make sure students are not only getting the nutrition they need, but also foods they enjoy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy strength in the past was culinary skills,\u201d he said, adding that it\u2019s still a passion, but one given new meaning from working at a school district.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn essence, we provide two-thirds of their nutritional intake,\u201d he said of students who get breakfast and lunch at the schools. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of influence on a lot of kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
To make sure the foods are something they like, Johnson said he has had to pay attention to what the students like and constantly modify the menu to match the district ever-changing demographics and increased diversity.<\/p>\n
For example, not all cultures eat meat, so schools must offer vegetarian choices, along with the more traditional fare with meat ingredients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to get enough diversity in what we offer … to try and provide something everybody will like,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cOur goal is to try and get as many kids as we can involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said he is not always right in his choices, but the kids let him know. For example, one of the biggest surprises of his career, he said, was the response to made-to-order sandwiches, something he was \u201cskeptical\u201d about, but which continue to be a student favorite.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids responded so well to be able to order that sandwich the way they wanted,\u201d Johnson said, calling it his \u201cbiggest surprise and most consistently chosen product.\u201d<\/p>\n
His favorite cafeteria food, he admits, is the turkey gravy, which he said they prepare without fat, so it is not as decadent as many think when they hear the word \u201cgravy.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the role of the kitchen staff is more than just being cooks to kids, which is why Johnson and his staff focus on the impact the staff can have on each kid. Johnson said it is important to him that his staff smiles because he knows the difference that can make in a student\u2019s day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt brightens their day and lets them know someone cares,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Johnson said one of his favorite stories involving his food-service staff is that of a middle school student whom he said obviously came from an abusive home. The student, he said, often showed up for school dirty and disheveled and needing a good meal. Every day, he said his staff made sure that boy got a good meal and worked with the rest of the school staff to get him the clothing and care he need, becoming something of a surrogate family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always remember that boy,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThat\u2019s caring. That\u2019s not uncommon for our staff to feel that way about our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because of that, Johnson said what he misses the most will be the staff and added that the last thing he will probably take down from the walls in his office will be the staff photo he keeps on the wall.<\/p>\n
His advice to his successor, whomever it may be, is to keep a focus on the kids they serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemember to keep what\u2019s important Job One, and that\u2019s feeding the kids,\u201d he said. \u201cDo it passionately and remember your success in doing it comes from the people you work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson also says that while it\u2019s easy to get stuck at a desk in the job he held for so many years, it\u2019s important to get out every now and again and remind yourself what the job is really about.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I need to refresh, I just go to a school and remember what we\u2019re here for,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re here to feed kids.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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